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On Christmas Night
Various composers

Armonico Consort / Christopher Monks

On Christmas Night

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212038628
Catnr: SIGCD 386
Release date: 21 November 2014
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212038628
Catalogue number
SIGCD 386
Release date
21 November 2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Armonico Consort return to disc on Signum with a festive selection of classic carols and hymns alongside new commissions and arrangements. Rounding off the program is Benjamin Britten’s timeless A Ceremony of Carols. Armonico Consort is the largest arts organization of its type in the UK, and prides itself on working with only the finest talent. Achievement highlights of its first twelve years include: The Magic Flute at The Barbican, Vivaldi's Violin Concertos at the Hampton Court Palace Festival with Nicola Benedetti and Carmina Burana at the RSC new Theatre. A dynamic and innovative conductor and keyboard player, Christopher Monks is founder and Artistic Director of Armonico Consort. Specializing in the performance of music from the Renaissance and Baroque, Christopher’s concerts and recordings have earned him several five star reviews in both The Times and The Independent. “...vocal lines can float, suspensions can melt and the listener can relax and marvel
Een feestelijke collectie kerstliederen, met de tijdloze A Ceremony of Carols
Het woord ‘carol’ of ‘carole’ is van middeleeuwse oorsprong, afkomstig uit de Franse en Anglo-Normaanse traditie, en werd gewoonlijk gebruikt voor een danslied of rondedans begeleid door gezang. Het Franse equivalent is ‘Noel’ en het Duitse ‘Weihnachtslied’, die beide ‘kerstlied’ betekenen. De term ‘carol’ werd vanaf 1500 nauw geassocieerd met het kerstseizoen, en de traditionele carol ontwikkelde zich, ongeacht de veranderende muzikale stijlen, over de daaropvolgende 400 jaar. De huidige collectie brengt enkele van de beroemdste carols van de 18e en 19e eeuw bijeen, samen met recentere voorbeelden, en besluit met een van de grote 20e-eeuwse koormeesterwerken: Benjamin Brittens tijdloze A Ceremony of Carols.

Armonico Consort is een van de grootste en meest innovatieve organisaties van zijn soort. Armonico inspireert het publiek met zijn unieke programma’s met concerten en nieuwe Engelse vertalingen van opera’s, waaronder ‘Supersize Polyphony’ en ‘Too Hot to Handel’. Het ensemble probeert de toegang tot uitzonderlijke en opwindende muziek voor een zo breed mogelijk publiek te vergemakkelijken.

Op dit album voert Armonico een feestelijke selectie van klassieke carols en hymnes uit, naast nieuwe commissies en bewerkingen.

Artist(s)

Armonico Consort

Armonico Consort began life in 2001, set up by Christopher Monks and a group of university colleagues with a shared passion for music from the Renaissance to Baroque, coupled with the imagination to find new and unusual ways to present concerts. Audiences seemed to love their engaging and imaginative approach, and most concerts in the first years sold out. “That gave us the confidence, energy and self-belief to carry on and do more, also to take more risks with our programming, and keep on experimenting” says Christopher. The ideas kept flowing, as did the titles “many of them were created down the pub...” including the concert programmes Naked Byrd, Supersize Polyphony, Monteverdi’s Flying Circus, Too Hot to Handel, Love Handels and Baroque...
more
Armonico Consort began life in 2001, set up by Christopher Monks and a group of university colleagues with a shared passion for music from the Renaissance to Baroque, coupled with the imagination to find new and unusual ways to present concerts. Audiences seemed to love their engaging and imaginative approach, and most concerts in the first years sold out.
“That gave us the confidence, energy and self-belief to carry on and do more, also to take more risks with our programming, and keep on experimenting” says Christopher.
The ideas kept flowing, as did the titles “many of them were created down the pub...” including the concert programmes Naked Byrd, Supersize Polyphony, Monteverdi’s Flying Circus, Too Hot to Handel, Love Handels and Baroque around the Block. Their horizons broadened to include more contemporary repertoire but at the heart remained music of the Baroque and Renaissance,including some rarely heard gems performed by some of the world’s finest singers and period instrument players: “We take great care to craft programmes which bring as much little-known music to life as possible, and find new and imaginative ways to bring this music to audiences. I’m particularly proud of Supersize Polyphony where we perform 40 and 60-part works by Tallis and Striggio in the round, surrounding the audience, interpolated by the timeless chants of Hildegard of Bingen.” It was this particular programme which earned the group their first 5-star reviews, from The Times and the BBC Music Magazine, and there were plenty more to follow.
An education programme was fundamental to Armonico Consort from the outset and now encompasses three AC Academy after-school choirs and an in-school choir creation programme which trains teachers as choir leaders, leaving a strong legacy across the UK, to date creating almost 300 choirs and choir leaders reaching over 250,000 young people. Christopher Monks says “Having reached 20 years, we are seeing so many of these young people who have been with the group since the age of 7 now singing as AC Academy Scholars alongside the professional singers. It is so rewarding to see how the opportunities we have created have changed them not just as musicians, but as humans, and this has driven much of what we are now going on to create”.
Future developments for AC Academy include the overseas expansion of the Choir Creation programme in Kenya working in partnership with several organisations to create choirs for street children, aiming to bring them back into health care and education, and away from abuse or addiction. In addition to this, Armonico Consort has begun a major new partnership with Foundaçion Azteca in Mexico which will see them train new choir leaders across Mexico working with the Orchestra of the Americas to create the first high level symphony orchestra and chorus in the country.
In 2016, in partnership with their sponsors Phillips66, Armonico Consort created a major new initiative ‘The Voice Squad’ introducing a Phillips66 workplace choir in an effort to improve the wellbeing of employees. This has had an incredibly positive impact on the mental health of the workforce, especially now that the beneficial effects of singing on the human mind are so well established. The ‘Voice Squad’ has since been extended to workplaces and communities around the country and as of 2020, following a new partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, now includes care homes and their first ever choir for those living with dementia. Most exciting of all is the new research which suggests that Baroque music in particular is extremely effective at unlocking memories for those affected by dementia which is something the Consort plans to fully explore as they continually strive to find new ways for their musicians to thrive in the modern world.

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Christopher Monks (conductor)

Composer(s)

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten is one most important British composers from the second half of the twentieth century. Remarkably, he focused on opera, a dying genre, at least in its current form. Britten's contributions however, among which Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, managed to remain core repertoire for opera companies to this day. Many of these productions included a role for his artistic partner and life companion Peter Pears. Britten also wrote a number of lieder for this tenor, among which his Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra. Yet, Britten excelled in many more genres. He wasn't even 20 years old when he composed his brilliant Phantasy for hobo quartet and his friendship with...
more

Benjamin Britten is one most important British composers from the second half of the twentieth century. Remarkably, he focused on opera, a dying genre, at least in its current form. Britten's contributions however, among which Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, managed to remain core repertoire for opera companies to this day. Many of these productions included a role for his artistic partner and life companion Peter Pears. Britten also wrote a number of lieder for this tenor, among which his Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra. Yet, Britten excelled in many more genres. He wasn't even 20 years old when he composed his brilliant Phantasy for hobo quartet and his friendship with the legendary cellist Rostropovich led to a Cello sonata, three Suites for cello solo and a Symphony for Cello and orchestra in the 1960s.

Britten never became Master of the Queen's Music, yet he surely had feeling for public sentiments. For example, as a pacifist, he taught his people about world peace through his War Requiem from 1962. Britten was an excellent interpreter of his own work, just like Bartók and Stravinsky. Many of his recordings have been matched, but never exceeded.


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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Away in a Manger
03:05
(William J Kirkpatrick, David Willcocks)
02.
In Dulci Jubilo
03:14
(Robert Pearsall)
03.
O Come All Ye Faithfull
05:26
(John Francis Wade)
04.
Hope Finds a Way
03:50
(Jonathan Roberts)
05.
Stille Nacht
03:36
(Franz Gruber)
06.
Sussex Carol
01:46
(David Willcocks)
07.
Mistletoe
04:03
(Jonathan Roberts)
08.
Once in Royal David's City
04:30
(Henry John Gauntlett)
09.
O Magnum Mysterium
06:41
(Morten Lauridsen)
10.
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
03:27
(Traditional)
11.
Ding Dong Merrily on High
01:50
(Charles Wood)
12.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
02:55
(Peter Gritton, Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin)
13.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: I. Procession
01:54
(Benjamin Britten)
14.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: II. Wolcum Yole
01:29
(Benjamin Britten)
15.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: III. There is No Rose
02:47
(Benjamin Britten)
16.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: IV. That Yonge Child
01:58
(Benjamin Britten)
17.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: V. Balulalow
01:30
(Benjamin Britten)
18.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: VI. As Dew in Aprille
01:04
(Benjamin Britten)
19.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: VII. This Little Babe
01:33
(Benjamin Britten)
20.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: VIII. Interlude
04:22
(Benjamin Britten)
21.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: IX. In Freezing Winter Night
04:32
(Benjamin Britten)
22.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: X. Spring Carol
01:10
(Benjamin Britten)
23.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: XI. Adam Lay I-Bounden
01:12
(Benjamin Britten)
24.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: XII. Recession
01:58
(Benjamin Britten)
show all tracks

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